Discovery Virtual Reality (VR) travel series

China’s first international Virtual Reality (VR) travel series was created when Mandarin Film partnered with Discovery US and luxury travel operator Abercrombie & Kent.

The highly skilled international team travelled across the length and breadth of China, using the latest cutting edge techniques in VR filming to capture everything from iconic locations, hidden gems (and of course panda bears) to make an incredibly rich, visually stunning and beautifully diverse series.

In just ten days, the crew travelled across the major cities and landmarks of China: Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, Chongqing, Chengdu, and cruised along the Yangtze River to bring China’s highlights to the world’s eye using VR – Mandarin Film conducted research and location scouts during pre-production as well arranged all location access for the shoot, as well as providing key crew and fixing services for the duration of the shoot.

Mandarin Film was able to gain exclusive access into Beijing’s most sacred temple Temple of Heaven and one of the world’s most visited tourist sites XiAn’s Terra Cotta Warriors with nobody else inside, which gave them a great chance to capture a moment of zen.

The Terracotta Warriors was shot using a cutting edge technique known as photogrammetry - taking photos from all angles then stitching and mapping them in post-production to bring out an incredibly detailed 360-degree feel.

Photogrammetry is used in fields such as topographic mapping, architecture, engineering, manufacturing, quality control, police investigation, and geology. Archaeologists use it to quickly produce plans of large or complex sites, and meteorologists use it to determine the wind speed of a tornados when objective weather data cannot be obtained.

It is also used to combine live action with computer-generated imagery in movies post-production; The Matrix is a good example of the use of photogrammetry in film (details are given in the DVD extras). Photogrammetry was used extensively to create photorealistic environmental assets for video games including The Vanishing of Ethan Carter as well as EA DICE's Star Wars Battlefront.

Other techniques were designed to give VR users insane birds-eye or action adventure views: whether be using camera to follow a kite-flyer on the busy Bund of Shanghai or sliding down the Great Wall toboggan, the journey was definitely one filled with great surprises and wonders of an authentic China.